TJ Power

Then once that's done, I'll typically start a stopwatch from zero minutes on Google.

So I'll just go on like stopwatch, just like a basic one and I'll start it.

Then I'll begin the task and eventually I will find myself desperate for something else, like desperate for distraction, desperate for stimulation and a quick feeling of dopamine.

Before I let myself do it, I'll always go back to the stopwatch and I'll just see where I'm at.

Like, am I at eight minutes?

Am I at two minutes?

Am I at 20 minutes?

And I'll always know that

Beyond 15 minutes, proper focus is coming my way and I'll use it to motivate me.

Like if I get to 14 minutes and I click on it, then I think, well, if I go on LinkedIn right now and get some crappy dopamine out of there, I'm just resetting back to zero minutes.

So that's pointless.

So I'll kind of utilize it to motivate me.

When I first started doing this on my first book, I literally had no attention span at all.

Gradually, as you gamify this and train this over time, you can get into deep states of focus.

It's just practice and strengthening the muscle.

Like I have the same on my phone.

I have really useful blockers that enable me to reduce my social media usage and stuff like that.

And tech is such a different dopamine addiction to anything else.

Because if you wanted to quit smoking, you obviously wouldn't put a pack of cigarettes on your desk and then like expect yourself to not smoke.

But tech just doesn't work like that.